A New Model for Publishing Research Monographs
The standard model for publishing research monographs (graduate-level
textbooks) in computer science is to use a publisher. The goal of these
publishers, whether for-profit or non-profit, is to maximize their revenue,
and so they price their books accordingly. For example, "Finite Model Theory
and Its Applications", published by Springer at 2007, is priced at $109. At
this price, the book is purchased mostly by research libraries rather than
individuals.
In a conventional publishing agreement, the authors typically receive
royalties at the rate of %15 (typically) from retail sales. Since sales
are usually quite modest, authors derive very minimal income from publishing
research monographs. Indeed, most authors would prefer to forgo income in
order to maximize dissemination. After all, research monographs are
published for scholarly impact.
Richard Baraniuk and I are developing a proposal for an alternative approach
to monograph publishing, based on the "freemium model". In this approach, a
version of a published book is made freely available on the web in a basic
format (e.g., html); we are planning to use the Connexions repository (see
www.cnx.org). A premium version (ePub, pdf, or print-on-demand) will be
sold at a nominal price through all of the usual channels; for example, a
soft-cover edition of a 300-page monograph can be priced around $15. The
goal is to cover the expenses of publishing (copy editing, graphical design,
etc.) rather than make large profits. Once the expenses are covered,
future income will be shared between the authors and the publisher.
We are trying to gauge interest in this model of monograph publishing. If
you are thinking of publishing a monograph and are interested in exploring
this model, please contact me at vardi@cs.rice.edu.
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